Spain's Rafa Cabrera Bello surged into a two-shot lead with a faultless seven-under 64 as compatriot and world number one Jon Rahm slipped six shots off the pace after carding a one-over 72 in the third round of the Spanish Open on Saturday.
Ireland’s John Murphy is just three shots off the top 10 after a third round 69. Murphy, just a matter of months into his professional career, birdied the fourth, seventh, eighth and 16th holes to finish two under after consecutive rounds of 68.
Cabrera Bello, thrice a winner on the European tour, was in marvellous form as he made seven birdies in a bogey-free round that left him at 17-under for the tournament at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.
Rahm, who attempting to become the first man since Seve Ballesteros in 1995 to win the Spanish Open three times, had a day to forget after he failed to recover from a terrible start.
A bogey and double-bogey on the front nine were followed by bogeys on the 11th and 12th for the US Open champion, who partially recovered with two successful birdie putts in his last five holes.
Frenchman Julien Guerrier and Spaniard Adri Arnaus were tied for second at 15-under, with both making costly bogeys on the back nine that handed Cabrera Bello a two-shot advantage, while England’s Richard Bland continued his fine season with a round of 64 that gave him a share of fifth place.
This week is the start of three consecutive events in Spain on the European Tour, with the Spanish Open followed by the Andalucia Masters and the Mallorca Golf Open.
Collated third round scores (British unless stated, Par 71)
196 Rafael Cabrera (Spa) 67 65 64
198 Adria Arnaus (Spa) 67 64 67, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 66 66 66
199 Jack Senior 67 67 65
201 Wil Besseling (Ned) 64 65 72, Richard Bland 69 68 64, Alexander Levy (Fra) 72 64 65, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 67 64 70
202 Jon Rahm (Spa) 63 67 72, Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 66 68 68, Grant Forrest 65 67 70, Ross McGowan 61 70 71, David Drysdale 64 70 68, Marc Warren 66 67 69, Matthew Jordan 68 65 69
203 Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 67 66 70, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 68 70 65, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 65 71 67, Santiago Tarrio (Spa) 66 68 69, Jamie Donaldson 64 70 69
204 Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 71 65 68, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 70 67 67, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 69 66 69, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 68 66 70, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 69 66, Renato Paratore (Ita) 67 70 67, David Puig (Spa) 68 67 69, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 69 68, Scott Jamieson 66 68 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 71 67 66, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 67 70 67, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 67 67 70, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 67 68 69, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 69 68 67, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 68 68 68
205 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 67 70 68, John Murphy (Irl) 68 68 69, Jordan Smith 66 71 68, Andrew Johnston 70 68 67, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 65 69 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 69 66 70
206 Min-Woo Lee (Aus) 67 69 70
207 Calum Hill 70 68 69, Graeme Storm 71 67 69, Jacobo Pastor (Spa) 71 66 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 68 68 71, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 67 72 68
208 Steven Brown 68 68 72, Marcus Armitage 69 68 71, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 67 71 70, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 70 69 69, Luke Donald 69 70 69, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 69 68 71, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 67 71 70, David Coupland 68 69 71, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 66 69 73
209 Andy Sullivan 67 70 72, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 71 68 70, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 72 67 70, Ashley Chesters 71 66 72, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 69 71, Darius van Driel (Ned) 67 71 71, Connor Syme 67 69 73, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 68 69 72
210 Antoine Rozner (Fra) 67 72 71, David Law 70 69 71, Richie Ramsay 69 69 72, Justin Walters (Rsa) 71 68 71, Oliver Farr 72 67 71, Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 65 73 72
211 Haotong Li (Chn) 68 71 72, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 71 68 72, David Horsey 66 70 75, Sebastian Garcia (Spa) 62 73 76, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 70 66 75
212 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den) 73 66 73, Chris Paisley 70 69 73, Ross Fisher 69 70 73
214 Ashun Wu (Chn) 66 73 75, Daniel Gavins 69 68 77
